1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wind deflecting plates for a grille used in an air conditioning system. More particularly, this invention pertains to wind deflecting plates which adjust the air blowing direction.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional air conditioning grille, which is installed on an instrument panel in a vehicle to control the air blowing direction, is disclosed in, for example, Published Unexamined Japanese Utility Model Application No. Hei 1-66545. This grille has a plurality of wind deflecting plates provided between a pair of upper and lower base plates and extending laterally leeward of an air conditioner or the like. These wind deflecting plates are joined by a linking rod on the air conditioner side, so that all the wind deflecting plates simultaneously swing in one direction to control the direction of the wind.
Each wind deflecting plate comprises a flexible plate made of a soft material and a pair of end supports made of a hard material respectively provided windward and leeward of the flexible plate. Swinging the wind deflecting plates will bend the flexible plates to smoothly alter the wind direction.
According to this type of air conditioning grille, since the grille is spaced a relatively large distance from the blower rotor of the air conditioner, the shape and size of the end supports of each wind deflecting plate are not restricted by the blower rotor, resulting in very large freedom of design.
If this grille is applied to an air conditioner which is attached to a wall in a house, however, the grille will be attached to the vicinity of the front side of the blower rotor. This greatly restricts the shape and size of the windward supports of the wind deflecting plates.
It is desirable that the flexible plates be formed large in order to smoothly change the wind direction. With enlarged flexible plates, however, the end supports should inevitably be made smaller due to the restriction on the entire size of the wind deflecting plates. The supports therefore have insufficient mechanical strength, making it difficult to hold the bent flexible plates and possibly causing malfunction thereof. It is thus troublesome to maintain the air conditioning grille.
In addition, if the fore and aft length of the supports is short, noise may be generated when the wind flows through the grille, impairing the environment where the air conditioner is used.
The end supports and the flexible plate, which constitute each wind deflecting plate, are securely joined together by means of an adhesive. Another way to connect the supports and the flexible plate is to form the supports of a rod member with a high rigidity and embed the supports in the flexible plate. As a further method to couple the supports and the flexible plate, each support may be formed of a tubular member so that the flexible plate can partially be fitted in the tubular member.
These conventional structures to join the supports and flexible plate, however, have the following shortcomings. When an adhesive is used to securely join the supports and flexible plate, the required bond strength can be expected to a degree, but the necessity of using the adhesive and an additional coating process will inevitably increase the manufacturing cost.
Mechanical couplings that involve embedding a rod member in the flexible plate, fitting part of the flexible plate in a rod member, or joining the supports and flexible plate by means of, for example, mating engagement of recesses and projections, are not capable of providing a sufficient bond strength. Repetitive alteration of the bent direction of the wind deflecting plates over a long period of time will break off or peel off the joint portions.